With the Judge finally coming out of hiding to once again

Feb 16, 2023, 11:34 AM

trumpet the virtues of Brad Brownell following the 40 point blowout of FSU last night, I decided to do a LONG recap of just what the Brad Brownell tenure has been at Clemson, year by year. It certainly is not anything to write home about, at least from my perspective. You be your own Judge.

2010-11: With Oliver Purnell's last team returning pretty much everybody, we barely make the last four into the NCAA, losing our 2nd round game to West Virginia to finish 22-12, 9-7 (4th of 12) in the ACC. OOC losses were to Old Dominion, South Carolina, and Michigan (Big Ten Challenge). We started the season 14-4, before sliding to an 8-7 finish that nearly kept us out of the Big Dance.

2011-12: We slide to 16-15, 8-8 (7th of 12) in the ACC, and miss the NCAA Tourney. OOC losses were to College of Charleston, Coastal Carolina, South Carolina, Arizona, UTEP, and Hawaii. With the losses already piled up, and the season already down the tubes, the team would rally to win 5 of the last 7 regular season games, including 3 in a row, the only time all year we had a tree game winning streak. But, we lost the regular season closer to FSU, and bowed out of the ACC tourney with a loss to Va Tech in the 1st round.

2012-13: We finish 13-18, 5-13 (11th of 12) in the ACC. OOC losses to Gonzaga, Purdue (Big Ten Challenge), Arizona, and Coastal Carolina. At our “high” point of the season, we were 12-8, but lost 9 of our last 10 regular season games, and ended the dismal season with a 1st round exit in the ACC tourney, losing to 6th place FSU by four. For the first time, there are rumblings about the future of Brad Brownell.

2013-14: As would become a pattern, whenever rumblings were afoot about Brad Brownell's future at Clemson, the team would have a better year. This team would feature KJ McDaniels, who was leading scorer in an astonishing 24 of the 36 games, as Clemson went 23-13, 10-8 (6th of 15) in the ACC. But, the last three of those victories would be accomplished in the NIT, as a then 20-12 Tiger squad did not receive an invitation to the Big Dance. We lost to SMU in the NIT Semifinals in Madison Square Garden to end the season. We had regular season OOC losses to UMASS, Arkansas, and Auburn.

2014-15: Clemson slid to a 16-15 overall, 8-10 ACC (8th of 15) record. This season went down the tubes early, with early season OOC losses to Winthrop, Gardner-Webb, Rutgers (Big Ten Challenge) and South Carolina. The team was 8-4 starting ACC play, and got to 6-4 in league play, until a 2-6 run to end the regular season, and a 1st round loss to FSU in the ACC tourney mercifully ended the season.

2015-16: Clemson was marginally better than the previous year, going 17-14 overall, 10-8 (8th of 15) in the ACC. We had OOC losses to UMASS, Minnesota (Big Ten Challenge), Alabama, South Carolina, and Georgia. The team was only 7-5 going into the ACC schedule, but won five of the first six league games, to build the record to 12-6. But, alas, another late season collapse, as we only went 5-7 down the stretch, including losing 3 of the last 4 to end the regular season. We lost to Georgia Tech in OT in our only game of the ACC tourney to end the season.

2016-17: Clemson took another step back in this season, going 17-16 overall, but only 6-12 (12th of 15) in the ACC. OOC regular season losses were to Xavier and Oklahoma. Following what would become a semi-predictable pattern, the team opened up to a good 10-2 record prior to getting into ACC play. But, the Tigers found tough sledding, losing 6 of the first 7 ACC games. We would go 5-6 the rest of the way in the regular season. Amazingly, a first round upset of No.13 NC State in the ACC tourney, although followed by a loss to Duke, was enough to get an invite to the “left out” tournament, the NIT. But, the Tigers would exit there with a 1st round loss to Oakland, to end an utterly forgettable season.

2017-18: With rumors swirling preseason about his job being on the line, Brad Brownell pulled another rabbit out of the hat, with the team posting a fine 25-10 overall, 11-7 ACC (4th of 15) record. Clemson would go into ACC play with a sterling 11-1 early record, with an OOC loss to Temple being the only blemish on the resume. We would open conference play with a fine 9-3 record, but stumbled down the stretch, going 2-4 in the last six games to end the regular season. A 1-1 split in the ACC tourney garnered that elusive invitation to the Big Dance. The Tigers would advance to the Sweet Sixteen, with victories over New Mexico State and Auburn, before falling to Kansas to end the great season.

2018-19: With hopes and expectations riding high following last season's Sweet Sixteen finish in March Madness still fresh, the season proved to be a colossal disappointment. We finished at 20-14 overall, 9-9 (9th of 15) in the ACC. OOC losses to Creighton, Nebraska (Big Ten Challenge) and Mississippi State sent us into league play with a 10-3 record. An abysmal 5-8 start was closed out by a 4-1 finish to wind up break even at 9-9. We lost to NC State in our only ACC tourney game, and got only an NIT invitation. A victory over Coach Brownell's former school Wright State, followed by a loss to Wichita State ended the Tigers season.

2019-20: Another average at best season, Clemson went 16-15 overall, 9-11 (9th of 15) in the ACC. Unusually, we opened the season with a league game, falling to Va Tech to go to 0-1. As the season progressed, OOC losses to Colorado, Minnesota (Big Ten Challenge), South Carolina, and Yale would follow. Another early league game loss to FSU got us into the meat of the ACC schedule with a 6-6 overall, 0-2 ACC record. We went 9-9 the rest of the way in the regular season, and won our first game in the ACC tourney before COVID cancelled the rest of the season for Clemson and everyone else.

2020-21: This season was a challenging one for Clemson and everybody else, due to COVID. The Tigers went 16-8 overall, 10-6 (5th of 15) in the ACC. Several games at different points of the season were cancelled due to COVID. We lost our only game in the ACC tourney in an upset to Miami, but still received a Big Dance invite. We lost to Rutgers in the 1st round, to end a bizarre season.

2021-22: Another disappointing 17-16 overall, 8-12 (10th of 15) ACC record was the result of this season. OOC losses were to St. Bonaventure, West Virginia, and Rutgers (Big Ten Challenge). In ACC play, we had an early opening loss to Miami, followed later by a strange scheduling quirk where we actually played Virginia in back to back games, winning on the road, but losing in Littlejohn. That loss would start off a dismal 3-11 run in league play, followed by a 5 game WINNING streak to close the regular season. An opening ACC tourney win over last place NC State would be followed by a loss to Va Tech to end our season.

2022-23: In what was once again touted as a “make or break” year for Brad Brownell to keep his job, we opened with a win over The Citadel, but followed that up with a terrible loss to a BAD South Carolina team on the road. We then won 7 of 8 games, with a loss to a then No.25 ranked Iowa team being the only blemish. But then came another terrible Quad 4 loss to a bad Loyola-Chicago team. These two Quad 4 losses are like huge boat anchors when it comes to evaluating post season hopes. But, the team responded by winning 10 of the next 11, to place ourselves firmly in the Big Dance conversation, even with the bad losses. But then, in true Brad Brownell fashion, we lost to a mediocre at best Boston College team, a decent Miami team, and the worst North Carolina team in years, all back to back to back. This has all but dropped us from the NCAA March Madness conversation. But then, once again in true Brad Brownell fashion, the team responded to CRUSH FSU by 40 points in our last game. With any hopes of a Big Dance bid flickering on Life Support, where the season goes from here is anybody's guess.

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With the Judge finally coming out of hiding to once again

That is an excellent summary of the disappointment and failure that has been

POTD!!!!***

Bump for the evening crowd.

Re: With the Judge finally coming out of hiding to once again

TigerBoard POTD